Delignit Beechwood Composite Panel Finds New Uses and Customers

Delignit, a composite panel material based on beechwood, is finding a broad range of applications, including a transportation flooring system for high speed rail cars being rolled out by Hitachi in the U.K.

The Blomberg, Germany firm Delignit AG develops, manufactures and sells ecological products and system solutions based on its natural wood material Delignit, selling a formable panel material that it says is lighter than metal and yet sufficiently strong for many uses. Versions of Delignit, which has been manufactured since the 1930s, are used in interiors of strucks, as fittings in the loading areas of transporters,

The Delignit system floors made of beechwood fibers meets the high technical requirements for public transportation in high speed trains. In addition to its strength and weight advantages is also meets requirements for fire protection and sound insulation.

Delignit says its beech-based materials are characterized by special technical and mechanical properties (e.g. they are resistant to wear and abrasion, dimensionally stable and possess high breaking loads).

"Beech is one of the toughest and strongest types of wood," the company says. "Pound for pound, it only weighs 1/10 of construction steel but possesses 1/3 of its strength." As a wood product it also also sequesters CO2 (carbon dioxide). Delignit notes that one cubic meter of wood will absorb almost one ton of carbon dioxide.

Among the brands for Delignit:

Dunacore - honeycomb based composite solution - sandwich construction made from renewable raw materials for load-bearing applications. It is used in car boot flooring. The three-layered sandwich structure of this flooring is ultra lightweight, self-supporting, CO2-neutral and recyclable.

Panzerholz Protect 2.0 - This is a composite of steel, wood and GFK (plastic reinforced fiberglass) used on building exteriors, and is a lightweight alternative to steel.

Wood-CFRP - for moulded parts, a composite is made of beech wood and CFRP - carbon fiber reinforced plastic.

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Bill's background includes more than 10 years in print manufacturing management, followed by more than 30 years in business reporting on industrial manufacturing in the forest products industries, including printing and packaging at American Printer (Features Editor) and Graphic Arts Monthly (Editor in Chief) magazines; and in secondary wood manufacturing for WoodworkingNetwork.com (Editorial Director).

In addition to his work as a journalist, Bill avidly supports efforts to expand and improve educational opportunities in the manufacturing sectors, including 10 years on the advisory board of the Print & Graphics Scholarship Foundation; six years with the U.S. WoodLinks educational organization; and currently with the Woodwork Career Alliance Education Committee, which supports educator scholarships, and develops high school and secondary school curricula in concert with efforts to certify manufacturing professionals skills standards. He is also on the Industry Advisory Board of the Greater West Town Training Partnership Woodworking Program, which has trained and place more than 950 adults in industrial in wood manufacturing careers through its award-winning grant-funded training program.

Bill volunteers for Foinse Research Station, a biological field station located at the heart of the Marble Arch Caves Global Geopark in North West Ireland. Foinse Research Station is focused on providing a platform for third level and university level research in forests, woodlands, blanket bogs, geology, archaeology, speleology and hydrology. Foisne is one of more than 1,200 biological field stations around the globe and one of more than 200 members of the Organization of Biological Field Stations.